Students sleep out to help homeless

About 30 Buffalo State students experienced firsthand what it's like to be homeless by participating in the annual campus sleepout Thursday night. The event was part of NYPIRG's Homeless Outreach and Hunger Prevention Project.

 "We have over 61 thousand homeless people in New York State. Just in Buffalo alone we have about 747 people," said Donnelle Piscitelli, NYPIRG's project coordinator at Buffalo State.

"Because of the economy, 24 percent of students nationwide don't have enough food because they're paying too much for tuition," she said.

Senior business major Carlos Cisneros expressed his concern that homelessness might become a reality for college students.

"A lot of us will graduate this year and won't have a high-paying job like most graduates from previous years. So even though homelessness has not been an option for all of us, it will be for some of the students who are graduating this coming year," he said.

Rachel Walk, a freshman theater major, showed empathy for what the homeless experience is like on a daily basis.  

"It's really good to understand what the other side feels and stand in someone else's shoes," she said. "This is just October; I can't imagine what January would be like without a shelter. Doing this gives us a little bit of insight of what's actually going on."

The event started with a discussion of stereotypes and myths about homelessness. According to the students who participated, it is commonly perceived that the biggest group of the homeless population includes veterans, individuals with mental disabilities and people who simply don't want to work.

In reality, the situation is quite different. According to a study conducted in 2010 by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, each year more than 3 million people experience homelessness, including 1.3 million children.

Nearly one fifth of the homeless population is made up of veterans, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans. Persons with disabilities represented about 38 percent of all sheltered homeless persons, according to a 2009 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress.

Many of the students were concerned with those numbers and expressed their discontent with how little is done to combat homelessness. One of them was NYPIRG member Alex Bornemisza, a sophomore majoring in hospitality and tourism.

"Four thousand children die every hour of hunger around the world and (we) spent millions of dollars on bombs. We have ways to get seemingly unlimited supplies of energy while we spend millions and billions on harmful forms of energy like coal. I just feel like we as a society are not doing enough curb the problem. We need to do something and it's great to see so many people here tonight who really care," he said.

Students who are interested in helping the homeless can participate in "Treat or Eat," a Halloween food drive. Volunteers will be out in the community from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. on October 30, asking for canned food to donate to the Western New York Food Bank. Anyone can sign up for the event by going to room 419 at the Student Union.

Maria Yankova can be reached by email at yankova.record@live.com.